Australia, England and Wales were all drawn together in a "pool of death" when the draw for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England was made on Tuesday morning (AEDT).

The trio all found themselves in Pool A at a pool draw for what will be the eighth World Cup, conducted at London's Tate Modern gallery.

This means one of the sport's traditional powers will be knocked out before the quarter-finals, with only the top two teams from each of the four pools going through to the knockout stages.

England and Wales will have home ground advantage with the 2015 tournament to be played in England and at Wales' Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The final will be played at Twickenham.

Wales was beaten 14-12 by Australia, world champions in 1991 and 1999, in Cardiff on Saturday - its eighth straight defeat by the Wallabies.

To play [England] in the pools, there will be a lot of hype around that game and it's one you look forward to as a player.

David Pocock

Wallaby flanker David Pocock said Australia would look forward to renewing a "rivalry that runs deep" with England.

"I'd never really experienced the magnitude of it until 2008 when we were over here and there was a lot of commentary comparing the English or Great Britain (Olympic) medal tally to that of the Australians.

"To play them (England), in the pools, there will be a lot of hype around that game and it's one you look forward to as a player."

Pool A

Pool B

Australia

South Africa

England

Samoa

Wales

Scotland

Oceania 1

Asia 1

Repecharge winner

Americas 2

Pool C

Pool D

New Zealand

France

Argentina

Ireland

Tonga

Italy

Europe 1

Americas 1

Africa 1

Europe 2

If Australia can top Pool A it is likely to avoid playing New Zealand or South Africa until the final. If current rankings hold true in 2015 the Wallabies are likely to play France, Ireland or Argentina in the semi-finals.

England is currently in a confident mood after its 38-21 victory over reigning world champions New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday.

However, that win followed defeats by Australia (20-14) and South Africa (16-15) at Twickenham last month.

The Springbok loss was especially painful as it condemned England to fifth place in the world rankings.

That left it outside the top four who were the leading seeds for Tuesday's draw, with New Zealand in top spot followed by South Africa, Australia and France.

"Australia have just beaten us and are an incredibly competitive nation. We'll look forward to it in a few years' time."

Meanwhile bullish Wales boss Warren Gatland said a tough draw could work in his side's favour, as it had in New Zealand last year when it reached the semi-finals after emerging from a pool featuring South Africa - who beat it 17-16 in Wellington - Samoa and Fiji.

"We put ourselves in this position," said Gatland.

"Our experience of 2011 is that if you come out of a tough group, it sets you up for the quarter-finals and semi-finals. The tougher the group, the better."

Every team that has won the World Cup has gone through the tournament unbeaten but Gatland added a 'soft' draw had frequently worked against the All Blacks in previous tournaments.

"If you look at New Zealand, often they don't get tested enough in the pool stages and teams sometimes field a second (string) side against them, and then they (New Zealand) often come undone."

Kind draw

The All Blacks, also the inaugural 1987 champions, were drawn in a Pool C with Argentina, Tonga and two as yet unqualified teams in Europe 1 and Africa 1.

It looked a kind draw, but All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said: "If you don't respect somebody you are going to get your rear-end spanked.

"No one has a God-given right to go through to the quarter-finals."

South Africa, World Cup winners on home soil in 1995 and in France in 2007, was in Pool B with Samoa, Scotland, Asia 1 and Americas 2.

"Our aim was to be in the first band of teams and we achieved that," said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.

"To us it doesn't matter who we are drawn against, because to win the World Cup, you have to beat the best teams out there."

France, three times losing finalists, including in New Zealand last year, was in a Pool D with a strong Six Nations bias as it also had Ireland and Italy, as well as the still-to-be-decided Americas 1 and Europe 2.

But it was as favourable draw as France could have hoped for, a point not lost on coach Philippe Saint-Andre, who said: "It's not the pool of death."

The eight remaining teams will come from a series of global qualifying matches that started in Mexico in March and will culminate in 2014.

If the 2015 World Cup was to follow its current seeding path, the quarter-finals would see South Africa play England, New Zealand face Ireland, Australia up against Samoa and France take on Argentina.

The World Cup will run from September 18 to October 31, with the final at Twickenham.